Circus toys and nightmares from Charbens

On my first day as an undergraduate I was handed an ancient greek sippy cup. It shouldn't have been shocking (Ancient Greeks all started off as babies and babies spill things) but I still remember the horror of holding it. Childhood things that outlast childhoods feel like a violation of natural laws; it's why dolls are so damnably creepy.

So that the Hornsey Road used to be a coven of toy makers fits with its spooky, liminal status. Where else but on somewhere that used to be called Devil's Lane could this have been made?

Pre War Charbens Lead Circus Laughing Clown with Hands In Pockets.
Ebay it here.

Tell me that the picture above won't give you nightmares. Pretend that as you drift off tonight you won't hear the swish of oilskin and a swaggering step come towards your bed, or see a ghostly face with a monstrous gash of mouth.

Really? You're okay with it? So okay, in fact, that you would sleep perfectly happily in a room with that image repeated like hellish wallpaper?

Fine. In that case, you won't have any problems with this:

Unknown solid cast circus clown on unicycle like Charbens. 

 Ebay it here

Eyes gouged out and bleeding, gaping bloodstained maw, and a unicycle. It's a psychotherapist's dream. 

Charbens were one of the great Hornsey Road toy-makers, and specialised in circus toys. In other words, there are many more like these. 

I need to recover and will be taking a break until Monday. Have a pleasantly clown-free weekend. 

North London Models

If you go to Conwy in North Wales you'll see signs for the 'the smallest house in Great Britain'. If you go in you'll discover that it is indeed very small and that there's not much to do but turn round and go out.

North London Models on the Hornsey Road is about the same size.

See? The shop's smaller than the pub's doorway. It's a lot less predictable inside than the house though. There's a vintage arcade machine:

There are military model thingies linking back to the long and glorious history of model-making on and around the Hornsey Road.

I'll write about that later. In the meantime, go look here and here.

There are paints. As a child I could spend hours gazing at the Dulux colour chart and trying to decide whether I liked 'apple white' (slightly green) or 'ice white' (a bit grey) more. 

Oh, and books. It's an erratic selection, but I did find Titus Groan there. Plus curious odds and ends of all sorts 'a general mix of models, plastic kits, railways, scenery, and dolls house accessories' to quote their website.

I told the owner about this blog and he said 'so you're writing about all the funny little shops that are staying open somehow on the Hornsey Road'. That's about right. 

It's an interesting street and I like the people on it.

Where: 474 Hornsey Road
When: afternoons until 5:30 except for Saturday 10:30-5:30. 
Tel 020 7281 7877

So Yale Terrace will have a Tesco after all.

There have been rumours flying about for months as to what would open in the retail space under the Yale Terrace development. This, stuck to the hoardings, looks like the answer: 

Licensing application from the soon to be Hornsey Road Tesco

There's no sign of a Stokes Croft style rebellion to this Tesco.

Stokes Croft anti-Tesco protest. Not on Hornsey Road.
Thanks to Mark Simmons Photography. 

There are no protest marches planned, no furious letters to the Guardian, no creative types occupying the space to make it into a theatre or writing poetry about the crack troops of gentrification. There's been nothing but a few sarky comments on stroudgreen.org, and even those are undercut by people saying they'd like a free cash machine.

Of course, Stokes Croft's reaction made the news because that sort of thing doesn't normally happen, but this will be round the corner from a newsagent that sells the Morning Star and in a constituency where Jeremy Corbyn has a 12401 majority. I'm a little surprised that it's all so quiet. 

I'm neither trying to start a protest nor arguing in favour of Tesco here, but there are two lines from a Sophie Hannah poem 'the end of love should be a big affair/ it should involve the hiring of a hall' that keep going round my head.

The Hornsey Road (for good and for bad) didn't have any chains. It may have been the last British high street of which that was true. There should be a ceremony to mark the end of that. Something like this: 

If someone tells you Brussels is boring, they're wrong.

If they tell you Brussels is strange, trust their judgement on all things.

The Arsenal skyscraper that wasn't.

Skyscrapers make people emotional. One side hate hate hate them all and won't see the beauty of the Chrysler building.

The other side will defend the Burj Khalifa for being tall and pointy although it looks like an alien's lair. The kind of alien who, if they weren't an alien,  would read Tom Clancy.

Londoners, in general, fit in the first category. If they like tall buildings at all they usually like them abroad where they can admire them, go up them and walk away from them. 

What does all this have to do with the Hornsey Road? 

In 2011 Arsenal wanted to build a 25 story tower with scalloped edges and a wavy top at the south end near the Emirates. It would have held 450 student bedrooms and looked like this: 

Tower

Islington Council turned them down, arguing that 'the proposed tall building is not appropriate in this location by reason of its excessive height, bulk, scale as well as its appearance which is detrimental to the setting and character of the surrounding local context.' 

I think that's council speak for 'no way in hell are we going to let this through'.

The Islington Gazette quoted a local architect as saying: 'the height was just completely out of character with the local area. It would have dwarfed the stadium which is just ridiculous' and a Green Party spokesperson saying this was 'a victory for common sense'.

But some of the people over at SkyScraper City did defend the tower: 

'Even though I don't like it, it could become quite iconic. It's certainly interesting and is one of those love it or hate it designs, especially the cladding.'

'it's one of the more interesting student towers... but does look like an experiment. The windows look silly but the bronze 'skin' looks quite interesting stretched around the rest of the building. It might turn out okay; might turn out awful.'

'I quite like it.' 

'I love it, it looks fantastic.'

Cladding

Even on Skyscraper city not everyone liked it.

'Looks shite'

'This is revolting !!'

'The shape isn't too bad but the windows are awful.'

Arsenal came back with this. 9 fewer stories, but only 57 fewer student bedrooms, and the soft edges have gone. 

I'm not sure it's an improvement. 


You've got until the 16th of March to comment. Call  0207 527 2847 or email planning@islington.gov.uk 

Even Better than Petter.

North London has pharmacies like Vegas has casinos.

There are pharmacies facing pharmacies, pharmacies next to pharmacies, small pharmacies, big pharmacies, huge pharmacies like Petter in Crouch End, severe pharmacies with warnings about diabetes, cuddly pharmacies that peddle useless homeopathic remedies and argumentative pharmacies that follow Ben Goldacre on twitter.

Chemitex pharmacy in the sun.

The Hornsey Road has an unassuming little Chemitex pharmacy. 

It's a revelation. 

The pharmacists look hurt when you ask for an expensive branded product and steer you towards the cheaper generic, explaining that it does the same thing, but for less money. 

They don't hurry or patronize people, or make them feel awkward.

It's a proper community resource - equally kind to the worried well and the very ill, the very poor and the very not.

Where: 322 Hornsey Road
When:

Mon:	Open: 09:00 Close: 18:30
Tue:	Open: 09:00 Close: 18:30
Wed:	Open: 09:00 Close: 18:30
Thu:	Open: 09:00 Close: 12:30
Fri:	Open: 09:00 Close: 18:30
Sat:	Open: 09:30 Close: 14:00
Sun:	-

Tel: 020 72724869

Ed Miliband goes to Platform

From the 17 February edition of the Islington Tribune:


'LABOUR leader Ed Miliband spent Wednesday morning talking to young people from the Platform Centre in Holloway as new figures showed a sharp rise in the number of youths out of work in the borough.

Long-term unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds in Islington North constituency has doubled in the last year from 140 to 280 while in the south it has increased by 70 per cent to 280.'

Ed Milliband at the Labour Party conference, in front of Oxfam's UK Poverty banner.
Photograph by Christian Guthie

singing and dancing

Music to start the week:

Jesse Pie trio recorded at the Shaftesbury.

Jessie Pie vox, guitar

Emily Hannah cello, backing vocals
Danny Bryan percussion, backing vocals

Danno Sheehan production
Paul Soper lighting

This show was recorded on the 17th April, 2011, at The Shaftesbury Tavern, 534 Hornsey Road, London N19 3QN.

All songs written by Jessica Houghton (Jessie Pie) apart from "Yellow Moon", by The Neville Brothers, 1989. All cello arrangements by Emily Hannah.